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Dessert

French Cream Cake

A layered cake with a sweet cream filling made from milk, eggs, sugar, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

French Cream Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the sugar and eggs together.

  3. Mix the flour and baking powder, then add to the egg mixture along with the water.

  4. Divide the batter between two pie tins and bake until golden.

Make the cream filling

  1. For the cream filling, heat the milk until nearly boiling.

  2. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with a little cold milk, then add to the hot milk.

  3. Beat the eggs with the sugar and stir into the mixture, cooking until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the melted butter and vanilla once cooled.

Assemble

  1. Turn the cakes out onto a board and split each in half.

  2. Spread the cream filling between the layers of each cake.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure to the batter and thicken the cream filling when cooked.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
Milk
Forms the base of the cream filling, adding richness and moisture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk so the cream filling sets.

The step that matters

Cooking the cream filling until thickened. Cornstarch thickens only when the mixture reaches a simmer or near boil, and the eggs can scramble if overheated. Stirring constantly and cooking gently keeps the cream smooth and properly set.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, milk, butter):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, milk, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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